Thursday, June 25, 2015

Self-Love

This summer has made me want to
re-evaluate what it means to love myself. I wrote a little something about it
after being awake all night. I usually don't share but why not?

Love comes from
self-love. The first step in love is respect. Self-love comes from
self-respect.

Respecting yourself means
being able to trust yourself. It means not inconsistently deciding to not going
to live up to your expectations for the day, week, month, or year. It means
taking mental, emotional, and physical care of yourself! One of my closest friends
told me, "there's no such thing as finding true love in anyone else other
than your family." I’m not sure if I’ll ever completely come to terms with
that; I’m a hopeful romantic. But get this: you should treat yourself how you
would treat your dearest loved ones, the ones you emotionally trust the most.
Love yourself as if you're a younger version of you.

"Remember yourself as
a little girl, she is counting on you to protect her."—Olivia Penpraze

You can see true love in
family. See yourself as your younger sibling. If you don't have a younger
sibling, try to imagine that there's someone a little younger than you that
absolutely admires you and looks to you for advice, encouragement, and support.
Think about how you'd treat them due to your feelings of care and affection for
them.

You’re that little kid who needs
real affection and care. You’re sensitive, you're delicate, and you need real
validation. You know that. You’re the only person who knows what that means;
only you can give yourself that now. Self-love is so much more than taking a
good selfie and posting it with a corny caption implying that you're working on
loving and respecting yourself (at least to me). I tried that... I didn't find
much help. I thought I loved myself, but to me, actions like that weren’t significant
enough to make a real difference. Relationships of any shape or form require
REAL work. They require both development and maintenance. These relationships
aren’t always going to be easy but it will be so worth it. Whether you're
trying to love a significant other, your family, or yourself... don't give up. Don’t
be inconsistent. Show respect for the ones you love... a lack of respect leads
to a lack of trust. Without respect and trust? You just have feelings. You’re
worth more than a relationship gone wrong due to lack of persistence. Act like
it.